


Hollow Men

by danniphant



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, F/M, Heartbreak, I'm so sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-03-07
Packaged: 2018-05-25 07:21:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6185692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danniphant/pseuds/danniphant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the way the world ends<br/>This is the way the world ends<br/>This is the way the world ends<br/>Not with a bang, but with a whimper</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hollow Men

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the T.S. Eliot poem "The Hollow Men"
> 
> I am so sorry for the angst.

I. There is something different about these akumas. 

They aren’t merely humans who have been taken over by emotion. They aren’t even human anymore. They are ethereal and move slowly, as if they have become a mere shapeless shell of who they used to be. The world around them shrivels at their touch, removing the life slowly, leeching it away to feed themselves. Civilians are panicking, pushing each other into the paths of the monsters in attempts to save their own skin. Chaos is breaking out across Paris. They are terrifying, and he is powerless to stop them, because how do you fight something that uses a twisted form of your own powers. He can only hope that his lady will arrive soon and save them all.

She never shows.

The victims touched by the akumas don’t die immediately. They lay there, close to death, in an in-between, never waking up. Many are unrecognizable, and lists of missing people are released in attempts to connect the victims to their families. That is how he discovers that one of his classmates, Marinette, was touched by death. 

 

II. He goes to visit her in the hospital. 

The doctors can’t do anything but keep her comfortable, like the rest of the victims. He knows that everyone is wondering where Ladybug is, and hoping that she will come and fix everything. But weeks have dragged on and there has been no sight of her. One look at Marinette, and the pieces fall into place. Ladybug isn’t coming back. She is right in front of him. She has been so close to him all along, and they couldn’t see each other through the disguises. 

His heart breaks.

He takes her miraculous home with him that night, but there is nothing that he can do. He wasn’t chosen to be Ladybug, her powers cannot help him now.

 

III. She dies at 5 in the morning.

Paris has given up hope that Ladybug will return. The akumas haven’t returned since their initial sweep, seemingly disappearing once they achieved their dark mission. The families of the victims start letting them go, one by one.

They have built a memorial garden for the victims. Most of them are buried there, including Marinette. Her gravestone is small. He thinks it is too small for someone who was as amazing and larger than life as she was. He regrets not getting to know her better as Marinette, but the stories he hears make him realize that he would have loved her as Marinette as much as he had loved her as Ladybug.

He doesn’t cry. He doesn’t feel anything. He feels numb, hollow. His lady is in a world where he can’t follow, and he only emptiness remains.

 

IV. He sees her in his dreams.

She is laughing, teasing him like she did in life. They chase each other across the streets of Paris as if nothing has changed, except they know the truth and they are _Marinette_ and _Adrien_ ; _Ladybug_ and _Chat Noir_. He can pull her close whenever he wants to. Kiss her like he always wanted to. Tell her over and over again how much he loves her, and hear her melodious laugh as she tells him she loves him too, that she will always love him.

But it is just a dream.

 

V.One day her miraculous disappears. 

He wakes up at 5am. It’s always 5am. Every morning without fail since her death. And he looks to his desk and the earrings are gone. He imagines they have returned to their origins, to the place where they go into limbo, waiting for a new Ladybug to become worthy of them.

In their place is a jade bracelet. He remembers the day it came into his possession. A day when he first started to feel like he had a place in the world. Like someone cared about him and his feelings.

The grief comes then.

It’s overwhelming. Tears stream down his face as he cradles it near, mourning for a love that never had the chance to bloom. He doesn’t notice the darkness swirl across the bracelet, or the power surging inside of him. Only Marinette. Sweet Marinette, his lady, his princess, who left him before they could be happy.

A voice in his head halts his thoughts. Promises to bring his love back, a way for them to be reunited, to have the chance to be happy, to be in love.

The earrings. He must find the earrings.

The voice calls to him. _Join me_ , it says. _Bring me the Miraculouses. I can give you what you want._

A small sound of surprise and sadness escapes him, but he doesn’t fight it. He embraces the darkness.

**This is the way the world ends  
** **This is the way the world ends  
** **This is the way the world ends  
** **Not with a bang, but with a whimper.**

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you think.


End file.
